October 7, 2011

A-Rod struck out with the bases loaded. He struck out to end the game. He failed miserably as he has done for most of his career. Did you see his face when he struck out with the bases loaded? He was a tight lipped tight assed mess. He froze. He choked. His disgraced the uniform. He might have Hall of Fame numbers but he is a drag on the team. As he has been since the day he got here. We would have been a lot better off without him. His bloated salary and his off the field antics have only brought trouble to the Yankees. He is a disgrace to the uniform.

IN THE COMMENTS: Maguro says:

Don't hate on ARod, the man has a painting of himself as a centaur hanging behind his bed. You gotta respect that.

He links to an article that doesn't have an image of the painting. I'm forced to do an image search. Hmmm. There's this. Or is it this?

Yankee fans are so delusional. They have no idea how to evaluate talent or performance. So I hope that they get their wish and ditch A-Rod. It would open up the AL East race a bit and make it more exciting.

Jeez Ann, you really do not understand the Yankees. Babe Ruth never had his name on his back, and thus it will always be for the Yankees. It's called tradition. It's part of what makes the Yankees special, they do not go in for gimmicky "special" uniforms, simply home pinstripes and gray road uniforms. We Yankee fans like that.

A-Rod was not the reason the Yankees lost last night. He was part of it, but others screwed up as well. Not to mention that the Tigers are a very good team with a closer who is on a roll this year. I dreaded this matchup going in.

AA -- historically the Yankee numbers were iconic! Originally meant to merely show place in the batting order, they obtained greater meaning because of that.

Ruth 3, Gehrig 4 --- heart of the order.

DiMaggio 5 -- heir to Ruth and Gehrig.

Mantle came up in '51. By that point the numbers became so iconic that it was felt to put too much pressure on Mantle...hence he got 7.

BTW, there used to be elaborate deception between the scorecards sold in the park which were coded every day with each player having only that days numbers... to cut out the vendors outside the stadium underselling them by a penny. Hence our modern phrase "can't tell the players without a scorecard" used by the in-stadium vendors...

A-Rod gets paid the big bucks to hit, period. And, as every economic analysis of the game I've seen has shown, he hits enough to earn his contract. There is no such thing as a skill for hitting when your team needs you, or if there is, it is miniscule. Every study of clutch hitting every done has shown exactly the same thing. David Ortiz, supposedly a "clutch" hitter who even got a plaque commemorating this from the Red Sox brass, had two seasons being a clutch hitter, and the rest of his career he was worse in clutch situations than in ordinary ones. Don't blame A-Rod for lacking an ability no one has.

"Jeez Ann, you really do not understand the Yankees. Babe Ruth never had his name on his back, and thus it will always be for the Yankees. It's called tradition. It's part of what makes the Yankees special, they do not go in for gimmicky "special" uniforms, simply home pinstripes and gray road uniforms. We Yankee fans like that."

If they want to stand on tradition, let the uniforms be made of wool. And knickers for everybody.

I don't think anyone has a picture of the Centaur painting, Althouse, it's just a claim from one of his ex-girlfriends. I choose to believe it, just for the sheer awesomeness of having a picture of yourself as a centaur.

"If they want to stand on tradition, let the uniforms be made of wool. And knickers for everybody."

Good lord you do not understand. The tradition is in not having names on the back. If they had synthetic fabrics back in the day, that was more comfortable than wool, every team would have used it. Even the Yankees. There are good advances -- such as better fabrics for uniforms and batting helmets -- and times when a franchise with a long tradition wants to honor that tradition by continuing a practice such as no names on the back. Think of it as an homage.

Get a grip, Trooper. ARod didn't serve up two gopher balls in the first inning to swing momentum squarely in favor of Detroit, and give Joe Girardi a flop sweat over how the hell was he gonna line up the bullpen now that Nova was sucking wind.

Only Yankee fans follow their team closely enough to know them without having to read their names on their backs.

I'll ll grant Trooper this: NYY fans probably follow their team closely enough to know who this number belongs to without a scorecard. They've certainly had plenty of chances to study it while he trots around the bases after homering in their house.

Har. In my house we are Dodger fans. If anyone mentions the Yankees we say "Seeknay kroy wen" to undo the bad juju. Given the record of the recent past, A-Rod's poor performance here means he will be wearing a Dodger uniform next season. Sigh.

Tigers are a great organization w/ a lot of history and great players. Their old ballpark was great..new one not so great. However, Trooper I would not wax poetic about Denny McClain, convicted Federal felon.

I waited in line at the old Tiger Stadium for Al Kaline to sign my Al Kaline mitt...

http://twitpic.com/59csk0

The date I brought with me...she had a piece of Kirk Gibson's wedding cake in the original box that she kept in her freezer for like 10 years....she wanted him to sign the box and show him the cake. The people standing around us thought it was the finger bone of a saint or something.

Yankee fans aren't supposed to suffer. We are supposed to win. We are supposed to hang pennants and bunting and have a parade in the canyon of hero where the truck with the bull pen catchers can run over the dirty hippies protesting Wall Street.

The Yankees are what made America great. Our American exceptionalism. Our storied history and tradition. Mom. Apple Pie. Hot dogs. Baseball. Corporate greed.

While I have nothing against most of the Yankees as individual players, there's something about Yankeedom that engenders a sense of earned (or unearned) privilege and outrage when that privilege isn't respected.

Look at the players like Earl Combs, Bill Dickey and Phil Rizzuto. They don't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, but for the fact that they played for the Yankees.

Derek Jeter will be whisked into the HOF on the first ballot while Craig Biggio will have to wait. A-Rod will get in quickly - steroids and Madonna notwithstanding - while Jim Thome will probably languish. Mariano Rivera is treated as the Second Coming while no one remembers Trevor Hoffman's accomplishments.

Yankees fans are, of course, despicable swine and loud-mouthed front-runners (like Dallas Cowboys fans). I will say this for them: when the Yankees lose, they react the right way, threatening to lynch players, managers, coaches and front office and burn down Yankee Stadium. Red Sox fans just whine about how much God hates them.

The Yankees are like Mom. The Mom that always loved you. The one who taught you to walk. The one who taught you what was important in life. The Mom who was the one who nurished you and taught you and shaped you into the person you became.The Mom you gave you your cultureal traditions and taught you how to behave.

The Yankees are like your Mom.

But A-Rod is not like Mom. A-Rod is a mother. A bad mother. And not in a good cool black way.

Yes the Yankees represent how you can be a winner if you root for corporate power and accumulate wealth, power and prestige be it as a stock holder or a simple fan.

Or you can be a dirty hippie and root for some cheezy new fangled sunbelt team who have all the history and tradition of a popcorn fart. A team who greatest player who is perhaps the ugliest player to ever play the game.

The Yankees are the team of a confident America. An America who built great muscle cars and didn't have to plug in your convertable to an extension cord. An America where Detroit meant quality not abject failure and urban blight. An America who knew it was our destiny to rape the land of foriegner so we could ride in style and comfort. An America who was not afraid of offending a bunch of weeines who are afraid that the world is too hot or too cold. A bold America. A confident America. A can do America.

However A-Rod is a Can-don't kinda guy.

He stikes out with the bases loaded and wiffs to end the game. Not a sniff of an infield bouncer.

The Spirit and Tradition of the Yankees are what made our country great. When immigrants come to our shores they can assimilate by rooting for a great American insititution that is the Yankees. That is why you see everyone from Mexican dishwashers to Pakistani cab drivers to Chinese take out delivery men wearing Yankee caps. They want to know what it is to be "Real Americans." So they root for the Yankees.

At least Randy J. could pitch like a mutha-f-er and wasn't on crack like say Dwight Gooden. And Matt Williams was not some punk like Jeter.

Anyway TrooperDork I'm really with Dodgers azul, not so much D-backs(and NLWest like real big league). And they hate the Skankees as well.

Dirty hippie? ah yr mormon-snitch boyfriend's lying as usual.That was him--dopedealer, flunkie, theatre fag etc--until he joined the LDS racket a few years ago. How's yr first reading of Crime and Punishment going, btw Trooper Limbaugh ?. I doubt you know a call from a put either.

Althouse values self-effacement above all else, especially in other people.

But as you can see in Trooper York, the practice of self-abnigation is unknown among the New York Yankees and their followers.

September, though, usually reminds the more philosophical Red Sox fan why he should devote himself to humility. Coming as we do from the land of Emerson, Thoreau, Henry Adams, Longfellow, and a thousand other luminaries of American intellectual life, we are acquainted with a more thoughtful tradition. We know that the delight of an early New England autumn is only a brief harbinger of a long, cold, hard winter, which makes the promise of spring all the sweeter with thoughts of glories to come.

The triumph of hope over adversity is one of the keys to New England's identity and virtue. We are grateful to have a baseball team so true to this age-old principle.

Let the noisome Yankees fan boast of victory, or wail and gnash his teeth at infrequent defeat. Those of us in Red Sox Nation have gained much greater by our longer sorrows and acquaintance with grief.

Trooper York, you're starting to sound like America's Politico. YANKEES SUPER GREAT REALLY SMART LEADER GIRARDI REALLY WANTED YANKEES TO LOSE THIS YEAR SO NEXT YEAR WHEN THEY GO 162-0 IT WILL BE EVEN SWEETER! ALL OTHER MLB TEAMS CONSIDER FORFEIT OF SEASON.

Let the noisome Yankees fan boast of victory, or wail and gnash his teeth at infrequent defeat. Those of us in Red Sox Nation have gained much greater by our longer sorrows and acquaintance with grief.

Oh, go get stuffed. Yankees fans may be loathsome front-runners (like Dallas Cowboys fans) but at least when their team loses they threaten to lynch players, manager, coaches and front office as well as burning down Yankee Stadium. Red Sox fans just whine about how much God hates them, then try to turn it into a virtue.

We will know when the end of times come. It will not be when Loki joins with the Frost Giants to start Ragnarok. It will not be when the Anti-Christ is elected Presiden (as that seems to have already happened). It will not be when the dogs lay down with the cats and J gets a date.

The end of days will be when the Yankees go 162-0 and sweep the playoffs and the World Series.

The one reliable source of joy in my childhood was the NY Yankees. My peak fanatic fandom days coincided with those five consecutive World Series teams in the fifties. Mickey Mantle. No novelist could coin a name more attractive to a ten year old. Mantle has a kind of Homeric ring to it. The mantle of greatness. The kind of guy who needs tape measures to measure his home runs. Mickey is accessible--the name of a boon companion and a cartoon character....Yogi Berra perhaps the most beloved ballplayer of all time. He even inspired a cartoon character. Mantle's greatness sometimes inspired envy and boos, but Yogi was always cheered. Perhaps that was because Mickey had the troublesome habit of striking out, but Yogi never saw a pitch he couldn't make contact with. Mickey was as mercurial as Achilles, but Yogi was Ulysses. He found this way home.....Then there was the outfielder, Hank Bauer. He won two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts as a Marine Lt. on Okinawa. And Jerry Coleman, the second baseman. He won the DFC as a Marine aviator during the Korean War. These heroes were just the utility players on those Yankee teams.....When the Yankees win the World Servies, I always feel that God's in his heaven, and the world is right side up.

The only thing that matters to the Yankees and their fans is winning the World Series. Season series, playoff series and division championships (hello there Chippy) don't amount to a hill of beans. Boston Baked or otherwise.

I think the Yankees are better than that...they would've dropped the 15-20 nukes on Japanese troop concentrations to make sure the Invasion would have gone as smoothly as possible. (as we discussed internally about Operation Olympic)

Why him? he was injured.Captain supeflous made the error that ruined Garcia´s QS. SO 8 times and failed in the 8th.Texeira is third to last in clutch according to baseball reference.CC has one good postseason in his resume and failed every time. if i were the opposit manager everyplayer in my team will bunt. By the third inning an ambulance would be taking him out The evil empire is down because Detroit is a better team:The MVP and leading batter in MLB.The Cy Young winner, triple crowned.A one.two that have no rivals even in Philadelphia.The best by far setup-closer couple in MLB.The best catcher in MLB.The best defensive CF in MLB. He knows to play at Copa unlike Granderson who had luck in the fourth game .He was traded for his inability to track the ball there.Also because his 275 and 170 plus SO are not good for a leadoff.AJax is a sophomore with more upside than him.Yankees outscored Detroit 18-11 but 11 werescored in one game( After Posada cheated his way into first ,thehe was not HBP).So it was 7-10 the rest of the series.The lousy pitching of the Yankees. CC and Nova and pray for rain for a week.Nova had fear in his face.Freddy wa supset by the Jeter error that cost him dearly.AJ Burnet, it is better been lucky than good.Not really,he is good but mismanged by Girardi.And JL is a real manager unlike Girardi. The last real manager of the Yankees was Bob Lemon